When it runs out of ink, I refill it. I keep refilling until the print quality starts to suffer, usually not until I have done so 20 times or more. So the cartridge cost itself/refill comes to $0.90 or less.

I bought my ink in bulk - 1000 ml black cost $40 or $0.04/ml. 250ml of each of the colors cost a total of $60 or $0.08/ml. When I completely refill the black cartridge, the ink costs $0.30. To completely refill all the colors, which never happens, would cost $0.84 - the average is probably closer to $0.50.

I could reduce the cost even more by purchasing larger quantities, but the ink I have will last me at least a couple of years.

I have not noticed any quality difference between the manufacturer's ink and the aftermarket ink.

If the printer uses chipped cartridges that have the print head on the cartridge, it's best to use the manufacturer's cartridges, but if the ink is delivered to a fixed print head in the printer, then using third-party cartridges from a reputable source is a good idea because the cartridges are like tanks of ink. Most of Canon's and Epson's current printers use tank cartridges and fixed print heads. The same goes for Brother. If Amazon has suppliers that supply compatible ink cartridges then it's usually all right to buy them. Read the purchaser reviews. If you search for Brother ink cartridges you'll see more compatibles than originals.

The ink cartridges from InkSell.com arrived today. For approximately $58.00, I got two sets of the cartridges required by the Canon Pixma MX870. That is, 4 black and 2 each of the other colors for a total of 12. I installed one of the large black cartridges and the first four printouts had ink smeared over a small portion of the top right corner of the paper, but there was substantially less smearing with each succeeding printout. After four printings, no more problems with ink spillage. I think the smearing was caused by the cartridge being filled to the brim.

There may have been excess ink on the print head. Before installing an ink cartridge, check its print head and remove any excess ink with a damp cotton swab.

I've never tried inksell.com, so I'll remember that one. I've tried many other third party ink cartridge suppliers, both online and retail stores, and they were all a disappointment except for one, which was LD Products (http://www.ldproducts.com). I bought two black ink jet cartridges from them on separate occasions over the past year for my Hewlett Packard printer, and both worked well.

If a new ink jet cartridge won't print, try soaking the print head in warm water for a few minutes, then blot the print head on a damp, folded paper towel. This process will usually clear dried ink from the print head and get the cartridge working. To keep your hands from getting stained while handling ink cartridges, try using latex or nitrile medical gloves; they're cheap and disposable.

Thank you cloudsandskye. Your analysis is probably correct. Once the problem cleared up, it never returned. So far, I am very happy with InkSell.com. They have good products with a fair priced. I have noted down LD Products and will give them a try.

Money vs Convenience

All this good luck with 3rd party cartridges has me thinking. I saw two printers (a Brother and a Canon) bite the dust in less than a year using 3rd party cartridges. Everything was fine until the printer just stopped working. After the Canon died I took it to a repair shop to see if there was any chance of warranty paying for a repair. I was told that the use of the 3rd party cartridges cancelled the warranty and that the mother board was shorted out by the cartridges. This guy handles all brands of printers and does not sell them so as far as I know he has no incentive to lie to me. He says he sees it happen all the time.
So I've been buying OEM cartridges. But those who say they save enough to pay for a new printer if it dies are probably right. I guess I'll just search Quicken to see how much I paid for ink in the last year, check prices, and figure out where the break even point is. If you do or have done the same thing, don't forget to figure in your time and inconvenience in choosing, buying, configuring, and getting used to a new printer.

I bought a Canon Pixma printer/scanner/copier from Walmart for $29. Works great. But if I ruin the printer because of a bad after-market ink cartridge, I'll just see what new $29 PSC walmart.com is selling now and replace it. Very little lost, a lot of money saved.

I have a Canon PIXMA MP990 bought locally in Australia and have never bought another cartridge in 2 years of use. I buy bulk inks in the Supermarket and refill the tanks. The only special tool is a chip resetter which I bought from Germany. The quality of high gloss photo prints have not degraded at all even though the cartridges themselves are now quite dirty looking. Recently I started getting error messages that my printhead was non-standard, so I pulled out the cartridges and the printhead and gave the printhead a thorough cleaning with isopropyl alcohol. Everything is working well again. Don't be fooled into paying for high priced inks - the products from teh supermarket are as good as the high priced original cartridges. By now all printer-users know that the manufacturers are ripping off consumers with high priced replacement ink cartridges and scaring them with horror stories about ruining their printers.

I purchased a black ink refill kit at Walgreens for $15. I estimate it will fill 16 or more cartridges. My Canon printer/scanner/copier cost $30 at Walmart.com, so if it gets damaged along the way, I haven't lost much.

I figure if I am careful, I likely won't cause any damage to the printer. And when the cartridge finally dies, I'll simply buy another one, and then refill it till it dies.

I find that nothing beats a laser printer for text quality and running costs for every day use. I do have a Canon inkjet for color output but I find I rarely use it. For the inkjet, I get cheap chipped replacement cartridges from Meritline. i used to refill, but the chipped cartridges as so cheap its not worth the mess and bother.

Laser printers use toner not ink. I haven't had to replace the toner yet and its been over a year. Depending on the printer, you can find plenty of third party suppliers of toner cartridges via a Google search.